Gunman opens fire in Moscow pastry factory, killing one

MOSCOW (Reuters) - A gunman opened fire in a pastry factory in Moscow, killing a guard early on Wednesday, officials said.

The man, identified by prosecutors as the factory’s former director Ilya Averyanov, told a radio station over the phone he was holed up inside as special forces circled the building.

“I shot one guy and unfortunately I think I killed him,” the man told Business FM. “If I survive, I will fight to the end ... Now I will either shoot myself or hand myself in.”

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The man said he had opened fire in self defence to stop people taking the factory from him. “They used fraudulent documents to steal my factory and bankrupt me. I have eight children,” he told Business FM.

Other media reports, citing Russia’s interior ministry, said the man later fled the scene and was on the run.

Moscow’s public prosecutor’s office said bailiffs had arrived at the factory in a southeastern part of the city that morning.

The “Menshevik” factory was being reviewed for bankruptcy by a Moscow court, state news agency RIA reported. Its owner had filed several complaints with the courts, arguing that he was being defrauded, the agency added.